My Samsung laser printer stopped working after 3 years in service. In a rush to get a replacement printer, I picked up a Brother Wireless Laser Printer HL-2170W based upon various good online reviews. The selling point for me is the included WIFI interface. I could place it anywhere in my house without attaching it to a computer.
There are three ways to hook it up. You can attach it to a computer using a USB cable, or you can attach it to a router using an Ethernet cable. The third way is to join the printer to the wireless network, and this is what I bought this printer for. The driver CD has a wizard to walk you through the steps to hook it up wirelessly. I picked the option to install the printer using an Ethernet cable temporarily. You insert the toner and drum kit assembly to the printer. Plug in the power cable and connect the printer to the router with an Ethernet cable. Insert the driver CD to a computer connected to the same network. The installation wizard searches the network for printers. Once it finds the printer, you can configure the printer to join your wireless network. During the second part of the installation, the wizard creates a port and installs the necessary driver for the printer. Everything went smoothly and the driver appeared to be installed.
After I disconnected the Ethernet cable, I could still access the web site hosted by the printer’s print server. The wireless setup for the printer is working. However, I cannot print to it via the printer created by the installation wizard earlier. I tried to installed the printer driver on several different computers and still I could not print from any of the computers I tried.
I investigated the problem and found that the printer entry in the Printers section of Control Panel does not have a correct port. The port created by the installation wizard is not an IP address, but a name. I suspected this is the problem. I created a new Standard TCP/IP Port which points to the wireless IP address of the printer and assigned the port to the printer entry. After the changes, I could print to it without any problems. I also configured my router to give my printer a static DHCP address to make sure the address does not change.
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Hello, I was wondering if you could go into this part in more detail. I have been having similar problems but not sure how to do what you said to do? Thanks!
“I created a new Standard TCP/IP Port which points to the wireless IP address of the printer and assigned the port to the printer entry. After the changes, I could print to it without any problems. I also configured my router to give my printer a static DHCP address to make sure the address does not change.”
The printer entry created under Devices and Printers by the installation program does not work because it uses a named port which does not work well. You will have to manually create a TCP/IP port and assign that port in printer properties. If you use Windows 7, right click on the printer Brother HL-2170W icon and select Printer properties. Click on the ports tab. Add a port based on your printer’s IP address. That should do it.